Finished Claymore last night. I was quite drained by the end, and that’s not meant as a criticism; it’s an intense anime. And it isn't afraid to kill off main characters (there's a doozy in the first third) so the frequent violence always had me worrying for the protagonists. I rate it at the low end of excellent.

Before I go any further I just want to say how wonderful it is to watch a relatively recent anime where: 1) the story is told seriously; and 2) there are no schoolgirls. (Woohoo! I am f***ing sick to death of anime schoolgirls. Please, please, more adults in anime. I tell you, I’m just about to take an oath to never again buy (or stream from a legal site) an anime that has high school students, in the vain hope of putting - admittedly minuscule - pressure on production companies to show some imagination.)

Despite the shonen fight scene elements that are grafted uncomfortably into the storyline, I think Claymore is best considered as part of the girls with guns genre but with giant swords instead of guns.

The obvious parallel, of course, is the women. Typical of the genre, they are sexy, smart and unapproachable, and they constantly struggle to take control of their destiny. Most obviously, they wield the phallic object (the sword) with immense skill, which gives them tremendous power. Immersed in a male dominated structure that is trying to control them, the contest is violent and fascinating. That contest is often played out once removed, so to speak, being situated in the claymores’ battles against the yoma, who are mostly male. For the women, the only successful outcome (as is the case from Noir to Canaan) is to step outside the system, to reject it completely. The cynic in me might argue that the girls with guns genre is really about women trying to become men. If that were true, it’s a decidedly non-feminist genre. The idealist in me would counter that it represents women trying to liberate themselves using the limited (read violent) means available to them. That the genre is aimed at a male audience suggests that the cynic in me may be closer to the truth.

You often read about the yuri elements in the genre, usually only hinted at on screen. While I agree they are intentional (and, anyway, the closeness of the female relationships is part of their reaction to their world), there is very little commentary on a much stronger element – the mother / daughter relationship or, if you prefer, older sister / younger sister. Since Noir re-wrote the rules of the genre, it has been a common element: Mireille and Kirika in Noir; Nadie and Ellis in El Cazador de la Bruja; subversively father / daughter with the handlers and the girls in Gunslinger Girl; Canaan and Maria in Canaan; and, of course, in Claymore with Teresa and Clare, and Jean and Clare. Pre-Noir examples hint at it: in Gunsmith Cats, Rally is big sister to Minnie May (even if Minnie May is much the more sexually liberated) and there are similar suggestions with Yuri and Kei in Dirty Pair. The original twist with Claymore is the central mother / son or big sister / younger brother pairing of Clare and Raki. It's a great evolution that gives the show considerable oomph. One of the best moments in the series is when Clare kisses Raki on the lips. The impact of this moment is not only from its place within the plot but also because there is nothing that approaches it elsewhere in the genre. The closest that I can think of is the cigarette lighting scene with Revy and Rock on the back seat of a police car in Black Lagoon.

(Revy is the unhinged girl with a gun. It's worth noting that she entirely lacks a redeeming mother figure. I wonder whether Balalaika should take her under her wing – it’s a fascinating thought that could give the franchise some depth it otherwise lacks. It’s also noteworthy that Black Lagoon is the most anti-feminist example of the genre. Revy is ultimately a pathetic character who is rendered impotent (!) by a Japanese salaryman. Her skill with a gun isn’t a source of liberation; it’s camouflage for her insecurity.)

The mother / daughter relationship not only acts as a counter to the male / female violence of the various plots but it’s also the wellspring of the genre’s most rewarding trope – redemption. When it is done well it is particularly moving, because the redeemer also saves herself in the process. Noir started the ball rolling with Mireille de-programming Kirika and simultaneously reconciling herself to their shared catastrophic past. It’s a very Christian concept and it’s no wonder that the stories are frequently set in western locations with Christian symbolism laid on thick. The most notable director of the genre, Koichi Mashimo, had a Catholic education and studied at the Jesuit run Sophia University.

I dwell on this element because it is central to the plot of the anime version of Claymore. Lurking inside every girls with guns heroine is a psychopath – that’s part of the fascination of the genre – and implicit in that is the struggle for her human nature to prevail. Here it is much more explicit: the women can literally turn into demons if they become excessively violent. The power of Claymore lies in how Clare and Teresa care for Raki and Clare respectively and preserve their human nature in the process, despite the unceasing and dehumanising violence of their lives. (Again, there is an anti-feminist hint here – women should be nurturers, not warriors.) Similarly, the pact between the partially awakened claymores (Miria, Helen, Deneve and Clare), Irene’s gift of her arm, and Clare’s, later to be reciprocated, rescue of Jean give Claymore a resonance you wouldn’t expect in an anime with so many shonen elements.

Set against the redemption trope is revenge. The overarching plot line of the anime is Clare’s quest to avenge the death of her mother figure, Teresa, by claymore turned demon, Priscilla. It takes Raki’s love and Jean’s sacrifice to bring Clare back from the brink of the abyss and enables her to repudiate revenge as a solution. Again, I think this is a very western, or Christian, outcome, but typical of the genre. Revenge is a frequent theme in anime, but the outcome usually hinges on whether the avenger succeeds or is thwarted, or whether they have other, more noble, motives. The down side of Clare’s choice to reject revenge is that the final battle between Clare and Priscilla falls flat. Not only because it is indifferently choreographed, not only because the previous battle with Rigaldo is so riveting, but also because pulling out of a fight voluntarily is hard to portray dramatically and the makers don’t manage it here. Nevertheless, Jean’s actions in this scene bring the series to a satisfying and moving finale.

There’s a wonderful piece of synchronicity in this scene that just has to be deliberate. Jean (voiced by Kotono Mitsuishi who plays Mireille in Noir) reclaims the human side of Clare (voiced by Houko Kawashima who plays Kirika in Noir) in the midst of a climactic battle with Priscilla (voiced by Aya Hisakawa who plays, you guessed it, Chloe in Noir).

Speaking of seiyuu, one of the delights of Claymore is the star-studded line-up of women, all speaking in their lowest register (with the notable exceptions of Flora and the pre-demonic Priscilla). Leading the way is the sexiest voice in anime, Romi Park, who plays Teresa. Not far behind is Houko Kawashima as Clare – her mature diction is worlds away from the schoolgirl Kirika. More astounding is the gravelly voiced Kotono Mitsuishi. You’d never pick her as Mireille or even Katsuragi from Evangelion, let alone the shrill Excel or Sailor Moon. They're not the only well-known seiyuu and, with something like 30 or 40 claymores, mostly speaking in low tones, listening was a pleasure all on its own.

A couple of final comments. Reading various reviews and comments I think people expect too much of Raki. For sure, he can be irritating but he is basically a likeable character whose role is as a child and a catalyst for Clare’s redemption. Perhaps he could have been given more development without detracting from Clare’s more important story. If the writers could have pulled it off (and expunged some of the more unnecessary shonen aspects) perhaps I may have upgraded my ranking to masterpiece. And lastly, the guitar riff in the opening theme is, quite simply, glorious.

Last edited by errinundra on Sat Apr 09, 2011 1:37 am; edited 10 times in total

Cute little school one-shot about a common character type, the cute and quiet girl who never speaks because she overthinks everything. Good jokes, cute characters. Only rated it good though because there really isn't anything more to it. Worth watching.

Although, if you care about such things, the animation is minimal. You will not be impressed with that in the least.

Thought I'd join and post, hopefully to see what's starting out for the Spring season, now that the winter season is ending.

Just finished up Index II, good series I've been keeping up with for a while, looks like they're trying to set up for an Index III. I had to go through it a second time, briefly, before I watched ep24, since everything I was watching began to blend together...well, mostly Index I and Railgun made it harder for me to recall what order events happened in.

Just finished up Zombie Desu Ka. Surprisingly good series, mostly because the characters were very likeable. Good comic relief, also some good moments.

Yumekui Merry was decent, not as developed, but very watchable. I'm guessing this week's was the last episode, they made the mistake of cramming too much into the last episode, which kinda made the conclusion seem half-assed.

Haven't seen the conclusion of Freezing, yet. I watched through it, but it was not my favorite of the bunch. Pretty boring and repetitive. Same thing over and over again, character development was pretty weak.

I'm downloading the Level E batch, now that the season is over, I figure I'll get the series done in a week. I don't expect it to blow me away, but it'll keep me entertained until I find some new shows to follow. It looks like everything on my list has wrapped up so I'm down to 0.

The good? Well, it was a kind of interesting concept and Sana's father was pretty cool. He got way too little screentime. Also, the OP and ED were nice.

The bad? Everything else, just about. The biggest one is that the show had no internal consistency. Episode nine killed the show for good, after that it was just a zombie stumbling around, clumsily piecing together the most ridiculous sequence of events I've seen in a while. "Trainwreck" doesn't do this disaster justice. It's roughly comparable to a jumbo jet hitting the Hindenburg which then falls on top of an orphanage, at least in terms of how badly the plot and entertainment value are burned by the shockingly incompetent writing.

I really want to give this show a rating of Awful, but it isn't - quite - bad enough as to warrant that ignominious level. Still, I recommend that you don't touch this piece of crap unless it is with a ten-foot pole. Now, I have to go wash off the stench . . .

Finished Blue Gender! Not bad I must say. Sure, not animation wise, sometimes I couldn't tell if they were simply holding a shot to save money or my DVD froze for a moment, but it....wasn't entirely QUALITY, lol. Ok, it was kinda charmingly retro for me, I'll admit.

But the first half was kinda slow, I was slugging through it rather slowly, then I hit episode 12 or so, which really felt like the halfway point from doing episodic bs to having a continuing plot and it kinda switched the narrative main and it drastically improved and became more interesting to watch. I kinda feel like they could've ended it on episode 23 though and been just fine, not sure what the last three eps were really there for. Also, the last ep didn't make me say "WTF?" as anticipated, I thought it made sense for the most part (and the parts left vague I was ok with). I really enjoyed myself, but for the love of god, could no one crack a joke in this series? Then again it may have ruined the mood and I think it did mood quite well. I also liked the two mains, Marlene more so than Yuji who was a bit of a bleeding heart by my standards, but I think they justified it pretty well without going too overboard with it. And they both changed a lot during the series, but I think it was done realistically.

Anywho, now I need help with what to watch next from my DVD backlog: Big Windup, His and Her Circumstances, Basilisk, or Hellsing (TV). I feel like I still want something kinda serious, but someone needs to be able to make a joke too.

Also, I've got the movie, cus it kinda came with the set, but everyone says it's garbage, I'm going to ignore it for now, the only thing I think it could improve would be the animation, like that's hard to top.

here's a list of Anime TV Series that I've completed so far since 2010 & 2011... (and also Anime Movies)

Infinite Stratos - overall was good~ Poor Orimura Ichika have to go through such prob... 1.) the ONLY male IS pilot in the world 2.) 2 childhood friends & 3 others, all are girls... are fighting over him... & 3.) no matter how much bravery he displays, the girls are a force to be reckon with for him, even for his sister (Chifuyu-nee)... ==lll

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? - pretty impressed overall~ ^^ a zombie who got unlimited strength, near-invincible & sometimes... a little silly... so far, Seraphim (or Sera for short) & Haruka (aka Masou Shoujo & genius) are just being the only "bully" in the series... for him (Ayumu Aikawa), his so-called boring life has just turned around... probably 270-degrees...

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: Awakening of The Trailblazer - one of the most epic & final piece to Season 2... the final battle against the ELS was one of my faves~ ^^ but most of it centers on Setsuna F. Seiei...

Magical Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st - mostly are from Season 1 of the Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha TV series... but elaborate in a good way & some nicely done animation + CGIs, all in HD glory~ hope that there's a 2nd movie (based on Nanoha A's...)

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - another great work from TYPE-MOON~!! ^^ what really made me moved was the battle scenes, complimented by the awesome musical scores done by Kawai Kenji~ overall, the storyline was a mix of all the episodes of the TV series & a little twist to it... in a good & interesting way~

Man, I watched one episode of nine different currently airing shows today. Sort of feel like keeping up with this season is going to be like trying to take a sip of water from a fire hose. I'm already following 15 of the new season's offerings (as well as Fairy Tail and Gosick from previous season) and the Spring roll-out isn't even finished yet. I know I'll be adding The World God Only Knows 2, Deadman Wonderland, Blue Exorcist and God knows what else.

Of the new shows, A Channel, Abnormal Physiology Seminar, My Ordinary Life, Sket Dance and Softenni are all on viewer probation. I cannot yet know for sure if I will be staying with them to the bitter end. Everything else I feel fairly confident about.

So been finishig allot of long running series I own but have not watched

so far I finished the irst 3 seasons of Slayers (which i really enjoyed)
Then I finished the rest of Yu Yu Hakusho (as far as season 4 goes i felt like that was a lil bit to rushed) overall a good series

and now I have started Nadia Secret of Blue Water (i bought this complete collection tin for 20$ at a pawn shop, well worth it so far)

This is a sad day in my anime viewing. I was excited to finally sit down and watch Tsubasa Chronicles: Tokyo Revelations only to find myself thoroughly disgusted with this series now. Clones? Really? It wouldn't have been bad with one, but two was just asinine, insulting, and absolutely ridiculous.

If there's anything I despise more, it's putting in the time to get close to the characters only to find the time was wasted. This is why I hate reincarnation bullshit. It's a cop-out because the writers are too damn lazy to build upon a story they gave up on.

This series is dead to me now and I shall not invest any more time with it. The first two seasons and xxxHolic will remain treasures to me, but this OVA will never be watched again. What a crappy thing to do to viewers. Unforgivable.

Speaking of xxxHolic, I finally got around to it and I loved it. I enjoyed the play on the title once I realized why it's like that (I never knew Yuko liked saki that much) and it just got better from there. The little stories helped build anticipation to see if Wakunaki receives his wish. I will be re-watching this one in the near future.

Black Butler was my weekend series and this one was unique. Not really sure how I'd rate it, honestly. It was good, but at the same time, it wasn't. It's hard to describe because the star, Ciel, is a character I grew to hate and this turned into me wanting to see him die a gruesome, horrible death (and it didn't happen).

The stories, or rather investigations, which he obtrusively involves himself in under "orders from the queen", are interesting, taking examples from Jack the Ripper, the spice trade, and other historic events into the overall series (nicely done, even without the historical accuracy, which becomes obvious when they solve the JtR case).

I can say, easily, the story wasn't sufficient enough to warrant a purchase on DVD. I just don't see a suitable re-watch factor in it now that I know how it ends and the stories aren't going to carry themselves a second time through.

As for my backlog, I tried wading through a few titles and I'm starting to see a trend. If I am not immediately entertained, I'm less likely to invest further time into viewing at the moment. I will get to it, but I want fun first and foremost. With so much anime being thrown at me, it's important to settle down or I'll burn out again and I don't want that.

It's probably a good thing my attempt at viewing anime on Crunchyroll failed (the video was choppy and the sound was horribly broken down into pulsating irritation). With so much available on the site, the last thing I need is to be watching multiple series as I used to do with old TV series. That bullshit way of viewing is tired and outdated. All or nothing, and at least Netflix affords me the all option.

The good? Well, it was a kind of interesting concept and Sana's father was pretty cool. He got way too little screentime. Also, the OP and ED were nice.

The bad? Everything else, just about. The biggest one is that the show had no internal consistency. Episode nine killed the show for good, after that it was just a zombie stumbling around, clumsily piecing together the most ridiculous sequence of events I've seen in a while. "Trainwreck" doesn't do this disaster justice. It's roughly comparable to a jumbo jet hitting the Hindenburg which then falls on top of an orphanage, at least in terms of how badly the plot and entertainment value are burned by the shockingly incompetent writing.

I really want to give this show a rating of Awful, but it isn't - quite - bad enough as to warrant that ignominious level. Still, I recommend that you don't touch this piece of crap unless it is with a ten-foot pole. Now, I have to go wash off the stench . . .

Anybody who wants to vector dtm42's opinion with my own can read on. I've rated Yumeki Merry as Very Good. I'm delighted that Sentai will be giving it a release at some point and I hope there are more seasons. I went into this series with fairly low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. I liked the rendering of various dreamscapes and I particularly liked the "mythology" of the show - how dreams (both kinds, the type you have when you are asleep as well as dreams in the sense of personal hopes and aspirations) were used as avenue of attack. I liked the character web (i.e. how the various characters interacted with each other) and some of the more stand alone-ish eppies had some real poignancy. I wasn't as crazy about the resolution of the series (the last 2-and-a-half episodes, basically) mainly because it featured my least favorite story-telling technique spoiler[(i.e. showing our heroes being ineffective for an uncomfortably long time so that you become frustrated - watching characters you like get stomped and not being able to do anything about it is never a ball of fun for me.)]

Anyway, as always, probably best to sample it for yourself to see if it might be your cup of tea.

Been keeping up to date with the latest season's offerings - whenever legal streaming wasn't available I'd just resort to the old conventional method though - which is surprisingly much less than it was about 2 seasons ago.

Rather than talk about everything I'll just list the worst I've seen so far... and the winner is... A-Channel! Bwwooo-ring. Even more boring than Battle Girls.

Besides that, Kaiji 1-26. Had my interest, but never really moved a finger until hearing about a second season last week. I started it during a hangover - rather, after sleeping 4 hours and waking up drunk and making my way up to soberness. Which is why I'm not entirely sure whether it was my mood or just the quality of the show that dropped drastically after the rock paper scissors arc. Dunno, was Kaiji melodramatic then? The second half was so melodramatic that it either became that way after the first half, or I just got fed up with the characters and everything. I'm still having the same issue with the second season.

And a bunch of OVAs courtesy of torrents and last season's chart.
Tailenders - Interesting short and the girl reminds me of the girl from FLCL even though I can't remember FLCL much. But, as pretty much every one shot OVA out there, it's far from complete and is a complete waste of time for those who like invested entertainment like me.
Morita-san - Remember the girl who didn't talk much in Word God Only Knows? Yeah, she's starring here with the same seiyu but different character design under another animation company.
Epic of Kebab - Which isn't present at ANN-chan's encyclopedia. Is this a LOL Heroes ripoff? It has to be. Reminds me of the hentai title ripping off Code Geass but instead the Geass was a mobile phone.
Hen Zemi OVA - Weird stuff. Not sure what to think about this, but if you liked Mitsudomoe this is likely to be your boat.
Gintama movie - Excellent jokes/trolling in the beginning and end, but the rest was pretty much as told in the TV series. Worth it if you're after a Gintama re-watch.

Still making my way through Fist of the North Star as always. It doesn't disappoint. Just when I thought Ken was beginning to bore me he undergoes a very discreet change in personality.
And also watching Eyeshield 21. Had a long break already, so I'm hoping to finish it by the next week. It's quite enjoyable but the drama is sooo repetitive.
Stuck on Detective Conan. 1 episode a day seems out of question because I frequently forget about it, so instead I'll see if I watch 2 episodes every Sunday, which is when I'm bored to death and would watch pretty much anything as long as it's not annoying.

Hmm, now that I think about it I haven't seen much lately besides the new stuff and the long stuff. I'm craving for a whole story in 12 or 24 episodes.

Last edited by egoist on Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

Been doing a rewatch of Spice and Wolf before its expiration from Funimation's various platforms.

I watched it the first time a couple years ago in it's subbed form, as is my usual preference, but I'm watching the dubbed now and I have to admit it's a good performance and it does make it easier to follow such a dialogue heavy show dealing with a subject, economics, I find difficult to focus on. The only thing I find annoying about it is that with my eyes liberated from constantly reading text during those dialogue heavy sections I'm left watching the lip-flap animation I find so annoying (stationary face, unmoving chin and cheeks, lips opening and closing like a goldfish's.)

Genshi Shounen Ryuu: The adventures of a prehistoric boy may sound like a charming and unique in anime, but sadly the show doesn't live up to it. There are basicallly two recurring villains through out the series, which one or the other or both appear in otherwise episodic build, which is "Ryuu goes into a village and someone tries to take advantage of him and his companions. After getting out of the pinch, he finds another clue for his quest and advances to the next village". Then everything is resolved in the final episode just like it was nothing. Talk about wasted story potential. Nice backgrounds, though.

Afro Samurai: People always come and shout things like shallow plot, while seeming to miss the point altogether. The point of this was obviously the action, which it did deliver. I approve of this anime.

Houkago no Pleiades: A Subaru ad anime? What a waste of time.

Sakigake Otokojuku: A shounen parody about manly mens manhood for men. It is certainly different than your usual school comedies, which these days consist of an all loli cast, even if they are high schoolers. Not here, these high schoolers could well pass for 20 to 30 year olds and they are all men. I had a few good laughs with it, but I think there was a really big overdose of man here, which as a man myself, didn't make me feel all that comfortable.

I finally finished the rest of the LoGH sidestories and have now watched all that it has to offer. Overall, the two OVAs have some good arcs and bad arcs. Much of the information it offers can be found within the show, but the two still provided some more backstory on interesting things such as the El facile incident and where Reinhard got Brünhild. The movies on the other hand should not be missed by any of its fans. Both have great animation and much substancial backstory in them, even the recap one. I enjoyed them immensely.

Also finished watching a bunch of ongoing shows: Bakuman, Star Driver, Fractale, SD Gundam Sangokuden, Level E and Kimi ni Todoke. Nothing worth much here, generic anime for generic 4-6 ratings. I thought Bakuman laid out a good setting to build itself up in the sequel season, but even that is severely lacking in drive considering that it's essentially a career anime.

Now Im finishing Nadia, I'm at the fillers right now and boy are they bad. I also picked up Cardcaptor Sakura as it is one of those famous shows that somehow got past my radar. Next I'm moving on to finishing Nana and some Gundam, I think.

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If you went to an anime convention this summer or have used the internet lately, you may notice anime fans seem to have fallen in love with Steven Universe. Why? Because the show loves them right back.― If you've been to an anime convention in the past year, you've probably seen colorful, gem-studded cosplay like this filling the hallways. Photo credit links: top left, top right, bottom left, bottom...

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